Sunday

Ted’s football team is much better than last year. The Saturday scrimmage went well and resulted in our team having a slight edge even though the other team was bigger and faster.
The played well in the exhibition game on Sunday, but the other team was also very good and beat them 20-0 inspite only 1 half being played. The problem was that the other team capitalized on our mistakes and it seemed like nearly every mistake our team made we ended up paying for by the other team’s touchdowns.
I was the assistant coach, and I was actually coaching the defensive unit for one of the series. They did a great job for 3 plays. But the last play, one of our players got burned on a pass play and we had a TD scored on us. (UGH!)
The offense improved but we are a very long ways from scoring with any frequency. We only had 1 first down, and that was from a roughing the passer penalty. We did complete our first pass on the very first play so that was great. Our little QB didn’t complete ANY last season, so that had to feel good for him. Offense is SO HARD to do b/c all of the players have to do a good job on the same play. That’s 11 boys all between the ages of 7 to 11 (not the best attention span and concentration there!!!). Then 1 good play is not good enough a lot of times. It will only 5 -10 yards, and usually the team has to move 50 yards to score. So that’s 11 boys concentrating 8-12 plays. You multiply 11 boys times the number of plays they have to do very well w/ great concentration & it’s 88-96 smart actions by boys between the ages of 7-11. That’s a lot to ask of those boys. So scoring seems very hard. Our only hope seems to score TD w/ long runs which don’t require so much concentration. I hope that we win 2 games, but I am not so sure it will happen (UGH!)

I scouted another game, and that was an experience too. The smaller, less skilled team beat the bigger, more talented team. All b/c of one mistake, one breakdown by the defense. & for one time, those collection of 11 little boys concentrated, ran the play well, and they scored a touchdown. & there still needed to be a mistake made to score the winning TD.

I love watching Pawn Stars! I wrote an entry about this last month (July), and incorrectly called it “Pawn Shop”. It’s on 9pm CST Sunday on the History Channel. The website is http://www.history.com/content/pawn-stars This is a funny, interesting show!

unreal sight

I was walking to work (I work in downtown Chicago) and saw a homeless man arguing/yelling/swearing at an outside wall of this large building. I just walked past him, didn't really stop, but it was an amazing sight to behold. He was talking in such an animated way!
Homelessness is really bad in Chicago. It's so prevalent that they have their own paper. If you buy their paper for $2, most of the money goes to the homeless. The paper is called Streetwise. You should check out their website (just Google Streetwise and put in the terms "Streetwise" & homeless & Chicago) The paper is actually well written. I see at least 4 or 5 homeless people every single day in Chicago. That's no lie!

Sometimes I do give money, & I buy Streetwise sometimes, but I just don't have the kind of money it takes to give every homeless person a dollar. I would be spending over $20 a week on that. I've seen a lot of homeless people, but I don't think I'll ever forget what I saw today when I saw a person arguing with a wall.

A word about a new link

I have added a new link to my blog. If you look on the right side of this blog, you quickly see some very good links like Amel's Realm and Crow's Feet. I also wanted to provide you with a link to my other writing which is with Wikipedia.

Wikipedia, as some of you already know, is an encyclopedia which is not written by hired experts as there are for Britannica, Colliers or World Book. Wikipedia is written by regular laypeople like you and I. However, it is important to note that when I write articles, they are given peer reviews and if they don't meet standards, the article is deleted. Articles that are written most of the time become group projects. For instance, a couple of my articles that I wrote drew enough interest where someone else improved upon them.

If you click onto the new link, "Vince's page on Wikipedia", you will be shown several articles that I have written. It also gives you a "thumbnail sketch" of my background including a wild "blast from the past" where my successor teacher at a school where I once taught was given poison by her own students. Hope you get a chance to check it out.

a night on the town with kids (Windy City Ribfest)

I went to the Windy City Ribfest where my two nephews Zach & Chris  were playing in their band, Catchpenny (see http://www.catchpennyband.com/ ). They sounded great, they seem to have a harder edge to their rock which I loved to see. For instance, they played Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love" rather than "Ramble On" complete with expert feedback. Clearly, the heart of their set is their own music that is on their debut CD and also their second CD From Where You Are. Catchpenny has been touring in Iraq repeatedly, and is always and consistently well received there.

Also, in attendance was Maribeth's co-worker, Annie, who is shown in the first picture. She was able to see Catchpenny for the first time. She was kind enough to take a picture of Chris, Zach, my kids and me, but unfortunately, I didn't press SAVE, & the picture she took became lost to oblivion. However, Chris took a picture too, thank God, so, our hope is that Chris will send his picture to me which I will add.

Then we saw a band greatly admired by Catchpenny which is from New Orleans called Cowboy Mouth. They put on a very energetic and engaging show. They're a very talented band, and one of the view bands where the drummer/lead singer is right at the front of the stage.

After hearing Cowboy Mouth, the trip home on the interstate was speedy, fast and short. We took an admiring look at the lit up skyscrapers and loved hearing Santana on the classic rock radio station, The Drive, 97.1. I wholeheartedly agreed with Ted that Chicago is a great city to live in. This month marks 20 years that I have lived in the Chicago area. It was 20 years ago that I moved from LaCrosse, Wisconsin to take a job teaching for the Archdiocese of Chicago at one of the parochial schools in the neighborhood of Pilsen in Chicago.

about an ad on dairy farm

There was a great ad by Google AdSense that I was proud to have on my blog. By the time you are reading this, I am not sure if you will see it or not. Anyway the website is

http://www.dairyfarmingtoday.org/DairyFarmingToday

I would strongly encourage you to look at this ad, because I grew up on a dairy farm. I worked on and off on dairy farms until about 1987. The summer of 1987 marked the last time I worked on a dairy farm (my father's) full time. Dairy farming is a vital, noble profession. It is a very tough profession as my 3 older brothers do it; 2 of them are required to wake up at 4:30 am each and every morning. Dairy farmers are required to milk their cows either 2 or 3 times a day. That means if you go to a wedding and then the wedding reception, when the clock strikes 3:30 or 4pm, you are required to leave and go feed and milk the cows and come back (depending on how much help you have and how many cows you have to milk) to the wedding dance until sometime around 7 or 8. If you don't have replacement help, you don't get to go on vacations.

Dairy farming is one of the best places to raise your children, because it's a great place to teach the value of hard work. I sometimes miss the farm, b/c it seems that my kids' day revolves around play whereas when I grew up their day revolves around work. Now, I don't want to say that my kids are a bunch of "good-time Charlies", they work very hard during the school year, and they are given lots of chores to do during the summer. Still, it seems like they are loving the computer and PlayStation a bit too much at times. Yes, they are also outside (rather than inside watching the TV), b/c our condo has a swimming pool, and they swim a lot there.

At any rate, please check out the ad. I agree with the ad, and I would look at all the aspects of the webpage which is very educational to those not knowing a lot about dairy farming.

health insurance statistics

The average income of health insurance executives: $11.9 million
The profit growth of health insurance from 2001 to 2007: 484%
The percentage of people that have become uninsured in the same time period: 19%

Wanting to smile/wanting to frown

Wanting to smile

Last night Charlie Rose interviewed Nora Ephron and Meryl Streep. Nora Ephron directed the new movie about Julia Child, and we all know that Meryl Streep is Julia Child in the movie. I loved listening to Meryl Streep being interviewed by the very clever Charlie Rose. She's the best actress of our generation, if not the best actress ever.

My oldest sister is the same age is Meryl Streep. Apparently, in 1949 (when she was born), Tarzan. So her invitations say what do Michaeleen and Tarzan have in common? They both started in 1949! Duh, Michaeleen! Use a better cultural reference with MERYL STREEP!
She has an amazing sense of balance. She knows she's an excellent actress. Yet, she finds a way to be humble without making people roll their eyes and thinking she's putting them on. She was asked about the toughest role she ever played. She explained about the process of how she usually assumes a character in a movie. Then she discussed how that doesn't work, and she has to "start from scratch" and figure out how to do the role better. Then in the middle of explaining how she performed her toughest roles, she looks at Ephron & Rose and said, "Neither of you know what I'm talking about" and the implication was, "& I feel embarassed going off on a tangent!" Then they stated in unison they understood what she was saying and wanted her to continue to explain herself. But she didn't........

Consistency at a high level is one of the hardest things to do. That's what makes Meryl Streep such a great actress. I've seen her read many of her interviews. She consistently doesn't want the interviewer to go on and on and count the ways she is great. With Rose, she didn't have to!
Seeing her be interviewed is nearly as fun as watching her act. Wish I saw last night's interview from the very beginning.

Wanting to frown

I had a written a previous blog entry about Michael Jackson. Now that I read the large Rolling Stone (Issue 1,084), I feel a strong sense of loss. Why do I feel this way??!?? I only like about 5 of his songs and the rest I either don't like or am entirely indifferent to. Why does it hurt that he's dead? I'll try to answer that now.
The pognant feelings are on 2 levels. We heard that when M. Jackson was trying to be revived, his kids were fearfully crying, "Daddy! Daddy!" That situation strikes a painful chord for many parents. My biggest fear (as recent as 1 1/2 yrs. ago) was that I would retire sick and poor. I haven't saved nearly enough money for retirement, & in the next 3 years, I know that I will invest less than $500 in my retirement accounts. So, that's a big fear, but the worst fear is leaving my kids, b/c I died before they were 18. There's an unbreakable bond between my three kids. The scary thought hurts, and it makes one think about a tragic death and the kids left behind. You can think of one instance right now as you read this. I think of President John Kennedy being shot, and during the funeral procession, his 3 year old son salutes him. Ouch.
The second level/reason why I feel bad is the sense of what might have been. I read in Rolling Stone that Jackson was finally somewhat in touch with reality. He wanted to be better than his rival Prince. He was preparing for his concert. Who knows if it was going to be the best ever as he wanted it to be, but even with me being biased against 90% of his music, even I knew the concerts in London were going to be something to behold. Then he died.

He was in better physical shape, and he didn't act as old and go around in a wheelchair like he was last year. He wasn't sleeping with little boys anymore. He was trying to be a good father. He wasn't even dangling his kid off of hotel balconies anymore. Then he died.

Like millions of people, including me, he had a problem with insomnia. Unlike me, he was one of the very, very few that would take 40 Xanax to sleep and live to tell about it. The night before his death, after his very triumphant rehearsal, his physician give him an IV of a drug that is used to sedate patients before surgery. Then he died.

Today & tomorrow

Today is my parent's 62nd wedding anniversary. 62 years! It seems like a lifetime, doesn't it?

I wish I could celebrate a 62nd wedding anniversary, but I most definitely won't! Oh well, that means I need to redouble my efforts being a good dad.

Tomorrow is MB's 42nd birthday. She seems to have aged well. She still is attractive, and she seems more mature, more tolerant of opposing view than she once was. She could still work on sharpening her budget-cutting knife and her subjectivity, but tomorrow, we'll celebrate all the progress she's made.

a new season w/ new hopes

Ted has started football season again in the Oak Forest Park District league. Last year was successful insofar as he had fun, learned a lot and he played nearly every down of football as he was starting defensive end and center. However, his team, the expansion 49ers of Oak Forest, were winless and in 5 games, they only scored 3 touchdowns. I know a little bit about that as 2 teams I was on were winless (my 7th grade and my sophmore year). The first time we were winless, we came back the next season and posted a 4-1 record! Let's hope that's what Ted does.

The 49ers have all but 2 starters back this year, and they have some pretty good new players. The hope is that they will score more touchdowns as that was lacking last year. We had some good moments on defense, and Ted was able to sack the quarterback several times. The hope is that they consistently do well on defense.

I am assistant coach, and the head coach says that I'm in charge of special teams. That's fine I know a thing or 2 about specials teams. He has some new ideas that will hopefully help us be a better team, so there is a lot of hope.

PS. If you look at the helmet in the 2nd picture, each decal he got was a personal or team award that Ted earned. For instance, he received a decal for each sack and also defensive stops he made by himself.